Love, Chloe

“Dear NICU Mama, Life after NICU may feel so far away, but know that time is going to come. Whether your journey is days, weeks, or months long, the day will come when you finally get to close the chapter that is the NICU. Until then, you get to dream up what that next chapter will look like while you sit patiently at your baby’s bedside. Who will they be? What will they like? I wonder if they will keep all that hair?

Please know, mama, that all the previous NICU mamas who graduated from that nursery chair holding your tired body also sat there and dreamed. Until that next chapter starts, there will be ups, and there will be downs. There will be pages of this chapter that will forever bring you to tears, and there will be others that bring a smile to your face. There will be pages of this chapter that when you reread you will wonder how that version of yourself survived. But deep down, you know how. NICU mama, you survived this with bravery, courage, and most importantly, an immeasurable amount of love for your baby. That’s what this chapter in the NICU is really about: love and hope.

When this chapter finally closes, and the new one begins at home, know that your story would not be the same without this introduction. This first chapter is not one that any mama could have ever imagined, yet so many beautiful stories start in the NICU. Our stories, as mamas of the NICU sisterhood. I hope as you write your next chapters–the one about your baby coming home, then the one about the “terrible twos,” and then the one about that first day of kindergarten–that this NICU chapter starts to hurt a little less. We can never erase this piece of our lives or our baby’s lives because without it, we wouldn’t have become who we were meant to be.

So NICU mama, like you, I cannot wait for my next chapter. And I equally cannot wait for yours.”

Love,
Chloe

More of Chloe + Levi’s NICU Journey:

“My son entered the world through emergency C-section at 27 weeks weighing 1 lb. and 15 oz. on May 1st, 2022. Levi, like many preemies, has had a rollercoaster of a ride for his first 6 weeks of life, and we have a minimum of another 6 weeks left in the NICU as of late June 2022. Though we have had our ups and downs, he is doing well overall and growing quickly, now weighing 3 lb. and 4 oz. For now, home is a Ronald McDonald House as Levi is in the best NICU available to him, about 4 hours away from us. While this journey has been wild, I have found comfort and hope though Dear NICU Mama.”